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Earl and I completed another test run today, about 350km of the best bumpy and twisty roads that I know of close to home. He passed with flying colours although the forks bottomed a couple of times and I lost count of the centrestand clashes on dippy bends, but they seem to be lessening (as is the centrestand). The forks and shaft have remained leak free! I remain highly impressed with the chassis and braking, and the ground clearance has also been untroubled although I have been edge-to-edge on the Road5 rear tyre. Even the fuel economy was suprisingly decent at 17km/L.

That's correct...👍

Go to classifieds, and make a post. 🫠

Hi I’m not sure if there’s a section or even allowed to sell your motorcycle on here, if not i apologise in advance.

I didn't think it was worth it to buy the complete exhaust. Their own DynoJet graph shows less than 3HP gain for the extra $300. It's also likely that they use thinner wall pipe than stock, which often adds a ringing tone that I don't enjoy. I'm handy enough to do a mockup, but this involves 2" stainless steel, so cost would still be a factor. Since I want to keep the existing Staintune for my 5th gen, I'd also need to find another Staintune canister for the 8th gen. Maybe one day...

Late to the party, but I'll give a 2nd endorsement for motorcycleshippers.com I've shipped 2 bikes with them; one from California to Hawaii in 2005 and one from Columbus OH to Hawaii about 2 months ago. They have terminals in West. Sacramento and Phoenix, so you might be able to save a bit of money by dropping it off and picking it up at the terminals. In my case, I paid extra to have them deliver it to my door here in Hawaii, as opposed to picking it up at the terminal. Price is between $800 - $850 from Grass Valley to Phoenix.

Eventually got my parts powder coated but this one is still parked for the moment, bought a TL1000S project and a 94 Urban Tiger FireBlade. I know I’ve read this elsewhere but is the 5 stud stub axle to RC40 97 swingarm a straight forward swap?

Wow. That is a very loose definition of "tech". Sounds more like a Parts Counter Associate.

Just the cat back. Too big to save/hang the whole thing on the wall, so I cut just the end to show. Will polish the tip and clean/paint the small end of the can. Maybe put a Scooby sticker on there above/behind the tip.

How handy are you? You installed the pipe, or the complete exhaust? A local hardware store may have just what you need to make a mock up of your own. Where do you live? This is for reference on your local hardware stores...

Earl may be getting renamed Öldicht! (a poor pun for my German-reading friends) as he is no longer weeping fluids from either end. We had a little 150km shake-down run after the recent work, the forks are now weep-free (for now) and the shaft likewise is keeping its oil inside. Earl is running famously well, handling nicely but the centrestand came under attack again. The new front subframe has made no real difference and is still sitting a bit to the right which means the tabs on the frame are bent and I am not touching those...The new LED lights make him look a little more modern. For S&G I disconnected the cable from the exhaust flap actuator, and have to say the soundtrack is much improved, with a nice smooth rumble at low revs now. Take that, noise police!

Not sure if this fuel tank is of any use to anyone but thought I would check before disposing of it. It was damaged when I dropped my bike at a service station and the tank hit the corner of the fuel bowser (replaced by insurance company). Apart from this dent the rest of the tank is in perfect condition. happy to give away if anyone has a use for it, just pay postage if not local. Please remember to reply by Private message (Forum rules I believe?)

Hey Guys, I caved and took it to my local Honda dealer. So far they are as clueless as me, they said the starter relay was done…even though I could hear it clicking when I was doing my diagnosis. So I replaced it, now they are saying the starter is bad because it’s only getting 6V on the bike, when it should be getting 12v. What doesn’t make sense to me is that the starter doesn’t have any effect on the operation of the bike once it’s started, even if the starter isn’t getting decent voltage it should still bump start. The fuel pump primes too, and occasionally re-primes if you try to start it, which mean’t the ECU’s power isn’t being sustained. When I asked about it the service advisor said; “That’s a good question, i’ll have to speak with the tech and i’ll get back to you”. The bike died while running, and while it was in gear with the clutch in, so I don’t think the starter is the problem. It won’t bump-start either, the conclusion I came to was the PGM-FI relay since it’s the only thing that can control both fuel and spark. So far, they seem as clueless as me and the tech seems to be firing the parts canon… Sorry for the lack of updates, since my last post the bike has been stuck at the dealer.

Cute. The cleaning, not the hanging. lol Looks like Bartender's Friend is the ticket.

QQ about shiny cans. I took the one off of my Subaru GT-B and cut the end off (~4" of actual muffler and tip) to clean and shine chrome and paint muffler to hang on the wall. Is there an easy way to do this?

I've got my own dollar general Staintune Tri-Oval Delkevic. One needed a repack a few years ago so I grabbed a bulk pack of those stainless Scotch-Brite kitchen scrubbers. If you spread them out they are like a donut so I slipped the muffler core through the middle of a stack of them. Then that mess got 1 wrap of standard FMF 4 stroke packing. Think the thing is on the 99 and sounds sick. There's a few Delkevic cans floating around...

I never needed it on all my RWU forks either but the USD design is quite a different beast. I have usually been able to catch the underside of the locknut on top of the spacer while I wind a cap on. I buy a lot of bits like these on Aliexpress; I know they aren't always the best quality but they are cheap and usually travel swiftly, and it is a whole lot easier than trying to find similar bits locally.

I need to get that forked plate, or make one. I manage, but I could manage easier.

Yeah, did all of that, thanks for the advice; used insulation tape wrapped around the stanchion where the upper bushing sits, and coated the new oil and dust seals with red rubber grease. This time around I have used some fancy SKF seals, and I have spent a good amount of time with the 400-grit paper on the pits. Installation was really easy using a neato fork seal driver that I bought from Aliexpress ($22!). I re-used my home-built fork spring compressor; it's a little agricultural and consists of two 900mm lengths of 90x22 decking timber with a 50mm joiner length screwed in at one end to make a U; then two bolts are screwed in about 300mm from the joiner projecting in to catch the holes in the plastic preload spacer. I put a ratchet strap through the axle hole and tie it around the joiner and ratchet that until the wood points up. I now just push down on the ends of the wood and can easily compress the spring to reach the damper rod bolt. I did buy one of those handy forked plates that slip under the damper locknut and hold everything still so you can refit the fork cap which makes this less of a three-handed task. I also bought the supposedly correct tool to compress the springs but my trebuchet design is much easier to use!

Nothing wrong with the look of the staintune. Love the sound.

You're probably right.... a little TLC clean-up on them and they should be good to go... They have been sitting around awhile, have a little surface rust in spots...

Yeah, I knew of the "all models using this part" list but that only works with identical part numbers. Like the slave cylinder compatibility, the number of similar to identical parts with different numbers out there is unknown. Another I do know is the shifter shaft oil seal. Different numbers for the VTX and VFR, but it's the same size seal for both.

Mount em. Park it outside, bike on side stand, bars a little to the right. Walk a bit away and take a look. Sip that beer. I think they are trick and your bike is not stock.